constrained manner was that of the most variable and unstable man who ever lived.

It was this habit of mind which made him tolerant. He did not annul the restrictive laws which, although not directly aimed at Christianity, kept it in constant antagonism; he allowed them to be put in practice more than once, but their effect was weakened by his influence. In this respect he excelled Trajan, who, without being a philosopher, had a clearly-defined theory of government, and he was also superior to Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius, men of principle, who thought persecution justifiable. Hadrian's lax morals were of service in this respect. It is characteristic of a monarch that his faults should be of more service to the commonwealth than his virtues. The levity of a mocking wit, of a crowned Lucian, who looked on life as an idle game, was more favorable to liberty than the earnest gravity and high morality of accomplished emperors.

It was Hadrian's first care to modify the troublesome inheritance he had received from Trajan. Hadrian was a distinguished military writer, but not a military leader. He clearly perceived the impossibility of retaining the newly-conquered provinces, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, and he abandoned them. It was, indeed, a solemn hour in which the Roman eagles retreated for the first time, and the Roman Empire admitted that she had gone too far; but the action was wise. Parthia, as well as Germany, was inaccessible to the Romans. Great expeditions, like those of Crassus, of Trajan, and of Julian, all failed, while expeditions of a more limited scope attained their object, as in the case of Lucius Verus and Septinius Severus, who did not attempt to overthrow the Parthian Empire, but only to detach from it the tributary provinces which were nearest to the Roman Empire. A withdrawal so humiliating to the pride of Rome was rendered doubly difficult by the uncertainty which brooded over Hadrian's adoption by Trajan. Lucius Quietus and Martius Turbo derived a title almost as valid as his own from the last commissions they had held. Quietus was killed, and it may be assumed that the Jews, ever on the watch for evidence of the vengeance of Heaven in the death of their enemies, saw in his tragical end a punishment of the evil his savage ferocity had brought upon them.

It was a whole year before Hadrian returned to Rome, so that he at once adopted the vagrant habits which made his reign a perpetual tour through the provinces of the empire. He devoted the following year, fertile in constitutional reforms, to the gravest cares of administration, and then set out on a tour in which he visited successively Gaul, the banks of the Rhine, Britain, Spain, Mauritania, and Carthage. This variety and his antiquarian tastes led him to indulge the fancy of becoming the founder of cities, and the restorer of ancient remains. Besides, he wished to avoid the reaction of garrison-life for his soldiers, and he found occupation for them in great public works. This prompted the innumerable constructions which date from Hadrian's reign-roads, harbors, theatres, and temples. He was surrounded by a crowd of architects, engineers, and artists, disciplined like a legion. Everything in the provinces which he visited was renewed and infused with fresh life. At the emperor's suggestion companies were formed to collect funds for these great works, in which the state usually took shares. If a town were in any degree famous, if it had been mentioned by classical authors, it was sure to be restored by the antiquarian Cæsar. It was for this reason that he embellished Carthage and added a new quarter to it; on every side, towns which had disappeared, or had fallen from their ancient grandeur, arose from their ruins and were called Colonia Elia Hadriana.

After a short stay at Rome, where he caused a smaller area to be inclosed by the pomarium, he set out in the course of the year 121 on a much longer journey, which lasted for four years and a half, since he traveled all through the East. This journey was even more successful than the former one. It was as if the old world was restored to life beneath the steps of a beneficent god. Hadrian, who was remarkably well acquainted with ancient history, wished to see everything, he was interested in everything, and desired to restore all to its former condition. Men sought to please him by reviving the lost arts: a Neo-Egyptian style came into vogue, and a Neo-Phoenician style was also attempted; cities began once more to put Phoenician legends on their coins. Philosophers, rhetoricians, and critics, flocked around Hadrian, who seemed to be another Nero, without his madness. The revival of a number of ancient and extinct civilizations was at

tempted, not practically, but in the writings of archæologists and historians. It was in this way that Herennius Philo of Byblos tried, probably at the direct instigation of the emperor, to discover the ancient Phoenicia. Feasts, called Hadrian games, were reinstituted by the Greeks, recalling for the last time the brilliant side of their former life; it was like a general revival of the ancient world; every country included in the great Roman Empire found once more its title to nobility and clung to it. The study of this singular spectacle recalls the sort of resurrection of the dead which took place in our own age when, in a moment of universal benevolence, everything was restored, Gothic churches were rebuilt, pilgrimages fallen into disuse were reëstablished, feast-days and ancient usages were once more observed.

Hadrian, whose culture was Greek rather than Roman, favored this eclectic movement, and largely contributed to it. His work in Asia Minor was truly wonderful. Cyzica, Nicæa, and Nicomedia, were restored by his efforts; temples of the finest architecture are an undying memorial of the cultured ruler who seemed to desire that the renewal of the world's youth should date from his era. Nor was Syria less favored. It was owing to him that Antioch and Daphne became the most delightful abodes in the world; every combination of picturesque architecture, all the fancies of landscape-gardening, and marvels of hydraulic power, were lavished upon it. Palmyra itself was partially restored by this imperial architect, and it received, in common with many other cities, the name of Hadrianopolis.

The world had never been so full of enjoyment and hope. There was scarcely a foreboding of the barbarians beyond the Rhine and the Danube. The emperor's liberal spirit diffused a general sense of ease. The Jews themselves were divided. Those who inhabited the villages to the south of Jerusalem were possessed with gloomy rage. They had but one idea-to restore by force the city they were forbidden to enter, and to render its former honors to the hill chosen of God. As for the more moderate sects, and especially the survivors of those who had suffered in Egypt under Trajan, who were half Christian and Essenian, they had at first no dislike to Hadrian. They were able to fancy that he had condemned Quietus to death as the punishment of his cruelties toward the Jews. They could enter

tain the hope of seeing the eclectic emperor undertake the restoration of Israel as one whim among so many others. A pious Alexandrian attempted to inculcate these ideas in the form already consecrated by success. He assumed that a sibyl, the sister of Isis, had had obscure intimations of the trials reserved for these later ages.

II.

THE hatred of Rome is at once declared: "O virgin, tender and luxurious daughter of Rome, degraded to the rank of a slave drunk with wine, for what a marriage art thou reserved! How often shall a harsh mistress tear thy soft hair!" The author, at once Jewish and Christian, regards Rome as the natural enemy of the saints. Hadrian alone obtains from him the tribute of a genuine admiration. After enumerating the Roman emperors, from Julius Cæsar to Trajan, by means of the ambigorical process of the ghemabria, the sibyl sees the advent on the throne of "a man with a silver head, whose name shall be that of a sea. None shall equal his perfection, and he shall know all things. It is in thy reign, O excellent, exalted, and brilliant ruler, and in that of thy offspring, that the things I am about to tell shall take place."

The sibyl, according to custom, went on to reveal the most sombre images: all scourges were let loose together, and men became wholly evil. These were the throes which gave birth to the Messiah. Nero, who had been dead for fifty years, was still a nightmare to the author. This terrible serpent, this actor and murderer of his kindred, the slayer of the chosen people, the kindler of endless wars, would come to equal himself to God. After withdrawing to the land of the Medes and Persians, he brooded over the darkest schemes. Transported through the air by the Fates, he will soon return to be the scourge of the West. The author sends forth a still more furious invective against Rome: "Irritable, perverse, reserved for the direst fate, the beginning and end of all suffering, since it is in thy bosom that creation continually perishes and is reborn, source of evil, scourge, the point in which mortals cease to be, what man has ever loved thee? Who does not detest thee in his heart? What dethroned king has ended his life in peace in thy midst? The world has

been changed through thee in its inmost recesses. . . . Formerly there was in the heart of humanity the brilliant sunlight, the radiance of the prophetic spirit, which brought sustenance and life to all. Thou hast destroyed these good things. For this cause, O arrogant mistress, origin and cause of the greatest evils, the sword and destruction shall fall upon thee in that day. Listen, then, O scourge of men, to the harsh voice which predicts thy ill-fortune."

A divine race of blessed Jews sent from heaven were to inhabit Jerusalem, which was to extend from its present site to Jaffa, and was to be raised to the clouds. There were to be no more trumpets, no more wars; on every side everlasting trophies should arise, trophies to celebrate the victory over evil: "Then shall descend from heaven a marvelous man, who has stretched forth his arms on a fruitful tree: he who is best among Hebrews, who formerly caused the sun to stand still by his noble words and holy life." By this Jesus is undoubtedly meant, allegorically representing, in his crucifixion, Moses with his hands stretched out, and Joshua.

"Cease now to tear thy heart, daughter of a divine race, precious one, beloved flower, light of beauty, exquisite plant, cherished germ, gracious and fair city of Judea, ever filled with the sound of inspired hymns. The impure foot of the Greeks, whose hearts have plotted against thee, shall no more press thy soil thou shalt be surrounded by the homage of thy children, who will prepare a table in accordance with the sacred oracles, with sacrifices of every kind, and pious prayers. Then shall the just, who have suffered the torments of anguish, enjoy more happiness than the evil they have endured. Those, on the other hand, who have uttered sacrilegious blasphemies against Heaven, shall be constrained to hide themselves in silence until the face of the world be changed. The clouds will rain fire; men shall no more gather in the sweet fruits of the earth: there shall be neither seed-time nor labor until men recognize the supreme, immortal, eternal God, until they cease to worship corruptible things, dogs and vultures, to which Egypt has offered the homage of profane mouths and senseless lips. The sacred land of the Hebrews shall alone bring forth the things refused to other men: rivers of honey shall flow from rocks and springs, ambrosial milk